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Monthly Archives: April 2010

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The U.S. Supreme Court denied a bid Monday by Tarzana attorney Richard I. Fine to be released from jail, where he has spent more than a year after ignoring a judge’s order to divulge information about his personal assets. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Fine has been held in solitary confinement at Men’s Central Jail since early 2009 after he refused to pay $46,329 in attorneys’ fees relating to a lawsuit or to reveal details of his personal finances. Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe found him in contempt of court and ordered him held until he divulges the information.

Sterling E. Norris, the counsel for Judicial Watch in San Marino, said he was surprised Fine wasn’t released because the high court has ruled in the past the longest someone can serve time in jail under “coercive confinement” is about five months.

The LAPD has slashed its backlog of untested rape kits from 6,132 to 648, but says it could expedite the process further if the FBI lifts a regulation requiring the verification of tests conducted by private labs. Daily News.

City Councilman Greig Smith, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said officials are lobbying federal lawmakers to change an FBI requirement that local police departments repeat DNA tests conducted by independent laboratories if the results are going to be used as evidence in court.

The battle lines are being drawn between Hollywood movie moguls and Wall Street wheeler-dealers over a plan to trade box-office futures as a commodity – much like soybeans or pork bellies. Bob Strauss in the Daily News.

On the one side are financial firms Cantor Fitzgerald and Veriana subsidiary Media Derivatives, which won preliminary approval this month from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to open two separate exchanges where investors could essentially bet on future box-office performance.

On the other are the major Hollywood studios and their lobbying arm, the Motion Picture Association of America, which maintain that movies don’t lend themselves to informed speculation on pre-release profits.

The city’s grand experiment in neighborhood activism is about to take a big hit this year, and some advocates are worried if its spirit will survive.Daily News.

Under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s latest budget plan, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment will be folded into another city agency, the Community Development Department, reducing its independence, staffing and budget significantly.